Arkansas Canoe Club Forums

For those of you who were exploring the spring Sunday morning, I wanted to thank you all again for the unexpected assistance. I really appreciated the help and my wife wanted to be sure and send her appreciation as well!

What you all may not realize, is that I get her to take one canoe trip with me a year so of course I feel the need to make sure her experience is just perfect. I think it's safe to say, our little swim below the spring didn't help my case for future trips, ha! It goes to show, what I already knew and she quickly learned, that paddlers are great people and are willing to help out those they don't even know.

It also goes to show, that no matter your comfort level on the water and how much experience you have that things can and do go wrong. I would have never thought that little stump below the water would have caused us to flip so easily. As much as I have fought the "PFD" debate throughout my paddling years, I'm not too proud to eat a little humble pie and admit that wearing them would have made things a little easier. I guess I am one of those that plays the percentages.... I've canoed X amount of miles and NEVER flipped. Therefore, the likelihood of me flipping this time is pretty slim--- Obviously my theory was proved wrong.

Hope you all had a wonderful paddle!

I saw quite a few boats bobble when they made contact with that deceptively submerged root wad. It looked like it was far enough below the surface to not cause issues, but it was actually lurking just high enough to grab boats. Most were able to just shift their weight and could re-settle their boat, but while you and your wife may have both shifted your weight okay, if your pooch leaned the wrong way at the same time it might have been too much.

I'm actually one of the ones from the Spring who did NOT come and help you...I was the woman with the medium brown dog, and I felt me paddling over to you with my dog with your dog probably would not have helped at all! But an important lesson I've learned in paddling with a canine companion: if you do something less than graceful, you can always blame the dog. This is much better than having to blame your tandem partner.

I'm glad so many of our group (most of whom by the way are still out there enjoying themselves!) could offer some assistance. We're all between swims, so it's always good river karma to lend a helping hand when possible!

I sure hope that little wet misadventure doesn't dampen (no pun intended) future paddling adventure plans. The weather and the incredible fall foliage were just too phenomenal to miss out on!